Boston Public Schools 2018

The Question

How can Boston Public Schools improve the customer experience for parents, guardians, and families?

The Story

For parents, getting questions answered too often depends on if you know the right person to call. But what happens when you don’t know who to call? We also heard how frustrating it is to get bounced around from one person to another, and have to tell your story over and over.

What if instead of saying “that’s not my department, let me transfer you to the main line for the right department,” staff could quickly look up answers? What if staff could transfer you not just to the right department, but to the exact right person? What if they could get that answer or transfer exactly right, even if they’d never heard of your issue before? And what if each new person you talked to could see what steps you’d already taken?

By interviewing 50 users, we identified three core pain points:

Information: Missing key information about BPS services and resources.
People: Don't know who to ask or who can help when issues aren't resolved at school.
Process: No transparency into how BPS works or how their issues are addressed.

To solve these pain points, we prototyped new versions of a BPS landing page, with prominent links to the most-used sections of the website. We believe the website should minimize jargon, streamline the web experience for key questions from parents and families, and tackle quick wins to win parent trust. It’s our hope that the next time you need an answer from the Boston Public Schools, you’ll easily find what you need to resolve your issue!